FitDay.com: Web-based Nutrition and Exercise Management

Keeping track of calories is a real pain. Keeping track of carbs, protein, fat, and other nutrients is an even bigger pain. Let's face it, maintaining a healthy diet is pretty hit-or-miss for most of us. So is figuring out how many calories we actually burn during a day. Seat-of-the-pants estimating is OK for most people, but some of us need some stricter controls.

I am a diabetic, Type 2, and need strict control over my diet and exercise. I know that record-keeping is essential, but who has the time, right? Like I said, it's a pain. The price I've been paying for the lack of control is fluctuating blood sugars and weight. To get both of those under control, I need help. FitDay.com is giving me the help I need to get on track and stay on track with weight control.

FitDay is a free online diet and exercise record book, but it goes much further than just storing and displaying numbers. FitDay also gives you on-screen analysis of your nutrient intakes and the calories you burn. Signing up is easy. You have to give minimal information:

Login Name (whatever you prefer)
Password (entered twice for confirmation)
Sex (gender, actually, so the program can do a more specific breakdown of calories burned and recommendations)
Height (for basal metabolism and Body Mass Index calculations)
Weight (same as for Height, also gives you a benchmark to start from)
Age (for Recommended Daily Allowances)
Lifestyle Level (how active you are in your daily routine for basal metabolism estimation)

If you use a free e-mail account (Yahoo!, Hotmail, gmail, etc.), none of this information is personally identifiable.

Once you log in, you will come to a screen with a column of links down the right-hand side. These links take you to the various parts of the program. They are:

Home

On the Home tab, you can change your profile information (except Login Name and Password). You can also choose whether or not you want your Journal to be public. It is Private by default.

Foods

The Foods tab lets you enter all the foods you have eaten on any particular day. You can use the Search box or Browse the various foods by categories such as Beverages, Dairy, Poultry, Snacks and Sweets, and many more. The weakest part of FitDay is the limited Foods database. Fortunately, the site allows to define your own Custom Foods by filling in the information from the Nutritional Information label on the package. Information stored for each item in the Foods Database include Fat (with specific fields for Saturated, Polyunsaturated, and Monounsaturated), Cholesterol, Sodium, Potassium, Carbohydrates (with a separate field for Dietary Fiber), Protein, Alcohol, and several important vitamins and minerals. You can also browse a list of Recently Added Foods to make it more convenient to add foods you eat regularly.

This tab also contains a Calories Eaten Today table and a Calorie Breakdown pie chart that update as you add food items to your list. This gives you a handy, easy to read reference.

Activities

The Activities tab lets you specify the activities you have engaged in on a particular day. You again have the options to search or to browse by category. You also have a list of Recently Added Activities to pick from. The Activities Database is limited, but there is enough variety that you can find an activity that is very close to what you need. The calorie values for the Activities are necessarily ball-park estimates, since there is no way to specify any exact intensity level, but they are sufficient to the needs of most people.

Just like on the Foods tab, you have an on-screen Calories Burned table and Calorie Breakdown pie chart, which shows percentages of calories burned by Basal, Lifestyle, and Activities.

Reports

The Reports tab may be the strongest feature of this site. You can get the reports you would expect: Calories Eaten, Calories Burned, Nutrition, and Weight Change, all with bar and pie charts to show you your progress. Also available are reports for Custom Nutrition Goals, Calories Burned vs. Eaten, and Activity Progress. These reports let you see your overall progress using the charts, but they also provide a detailed breakdown of the data being reported, so you can see exactly where you are doing well or poorly. The reports make it worth your while to use this site.

Weight

The Weight tab, as its name implies, lets you keep track of your current weight. You can also set a target weight and a deadline date by which you intend to reach your target. Also on this tab is a chart showing where you stand regarding the recommended weight for your height. Getting the blue dot to move to the left is a good incentive to tighten up on diet and exercise.

Goals

FitDay also lets you set goals for any of the nutrients the program tracks. For each nutrient, you can set minimum and maximum daily intake levels.

Journal

The Journal is a notepad where you can record your thoughts for the day.

Calendar

The Calendar allows you to jump to a specific day, so you can view or change the Foods or Activities for that day.

Help

FitDay provides a fairly extensive Help system. Each tab has a Help link in the upper right corner that will take you to the specific Help page for that tab. You may also use the Help Tab to browse through all the various topics for enlightenment or education about the system.

Guidelines

The Guidelines tab contains an extensive guide to nutritional guidelines, including RDAs, salt and fat intake, food labels, the Food Guide Pyramid, activity levels, and much more.

FitDay is a reasonably comprehensive and very user-friendly site that would be a great benefit for anyone trying to track their diet and exercise. I love it and use it every day. You really can't beat the price, either.